Donald Trump

[Roger Bissell]

Cheap shot...

"air-quitter"

I guess it is fashionable to degrade a woman in Canada if she has a handicapped child.

I don't get it.

What does calling Palin's plane "Air Quitter" have to do with her having a handicapped child?

Nothing. Hitching a ride on Air Quitter as it hopped from Fairbanks to Ames refers to her resignation as Alaska governor, her bolting out of the state house. That was a disappointment for me. There was no drama in the resignation. She just bailed and walked away from her responsibilities. Nobody had asked her to step down.

.....

I admire her forthright defense of her children, especially her wee one, who is precious She should be respected as a mother. It isn't a weird or nasty thing to have a Down Syndrome Child at all, nor to love and care for a child with a more serious disability. Down Syndrome children can excel, love, read, work, play. I was back in the day disgusted with the bullshit Palin had to go through just to be a woman, a pregnant woman, a women with a

There is no truth to the highlighted statement.

William would be demanding and squealing for some "objective" sourcing for that statement which appears to be pure speculation.

A...

Time magazine did a feature on the "5 best explanations" of why Palin quit her governor's gig. Perhaps through lack of imagination - or fear of a lawsuit? - none of the speculations involved the idea that she someone had actually asked her to quit. http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1908800-2,00.html. Most of the reasons below appear to involve her untenable political position in Alaska. I think that together, along with the Palins' legal/financial troubles, the first four reasons pushed her hard toward quitting the governorship for the activist/inspirational role (and the $$$, of course).

1. She was repeating a previous "selfless" act of resignation, in order to curry public favor, rather than stay in office as "lame duck."

2. As she became more overtly conservative, she lost bipartisan support and further had national Dem's working to undermine her.

3. She was a gridlock and antagonistic governor and became frustrated.

4. She was busy so much with family and gone so much campaigning and speaking, she became in effect a lame duck and unable to govern effectively which was also frustrating. (See 3.)

5. The Palins had a lot of legal expenses, and speaking engagements made them a lot more money than their combined salaries and opened a pathway for her to become an inspirational public figure (cheerleader for conservative candidates and causes).

That may not be the most admirable combination of motives for someone to quit a job that wasn't working any more, but it's what I would have done. Sometime's it's right to be a "quitter," as long as you move on to what you really should be doing. (Though I really wish she didn't see public speaking as her calling. Gads, it is painful to listen to and watch her speak. She needs to *read* her speeches from teleprompter - and figure out how to get rid of that shrill, grating tone that has crept into her voice in the past 7-1/2 years. It's horrid.)

Reb!

[PDS]

I could only last 40 seconds. And not because of the pained look on Trump's face, either.

[Selene]

Cheap shot...

"air-quitter"

I guess it is fashionable to degrade a woman in Canada if she has a handicapped child.

I don't get it.

What does calling Palin's plane "Air Quitter" have to do with her having a handicapped child?

Nothing. Hitching a ride on Air Quitter as it hopped from Fairbanks to Ames refers to her resignation as Alaska governor, her bolting out of the state house. That was a disappointment for me. There was no drama in the resignation. She just bailed and walked away from her responsibilities. Nobody had asked her to step down.

.....

I admire her forthright defense of her children, especially her wee one, who is precious She should be respected as a mother. It isn't a weird or nasty thing to have a Down Syndrome Child at all, nor to love and care for a child with a more serious disability. Down Syndrome children can excel, love, read, work, play. I was back in the day disgusted with the bullshit Palin had to go through just to be a woman, a pregnant woman, a women with a

There is no truth to the highlighted statement.

William would be demanding and squealing for some "objective" sourcing for that statement which appears to be pure speculation.

A...

Time magazine did a feature on the "5 best explanations" of why Palin quit her governor's gig. Perhaps through lack of imagination - or fear of a lawsuit? - none of the speculations involved the idea that she someone had actually asked her to quit. http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1908800-2,00.html. Most of the reasons below appear to involve her untenable political position in Alaska. I think that together, along with the Palins' legal/financial troubles, the first four reasons pushed her hard toward quitting the governorship for the activist/inspirational role (and the $$$, of course).

1. She was repeating a previous "selfless" act of resignation, in order to curry public favor, rather than stay in office as "lame duck."

2. As she became more overtly conservative, she lost bipartisan support and further had national Dem's working to undermine her.

3. She was a gridlock and antagonistic governor and became frustrated.

4. She was busy so much with family and gone so much campaigning and speaking, she became in effect a lame duck and unable to govern effectively which was also frustrating. (See 3.)

5. The Palins had a lot of legal expenses, and speaking engagements made them a lot more money than their combined salaries and opened a pathway for her to become an inspirational public figure (cheerleader for conservative candidates and causes).

That may not be the most admirable combination of motives for someone to quit a job that wasn't working any more, but it's what I would have done. Sometime's it's right to be a "quitter," as long as you move on to what you really should be doing. (Though I really wish she didn't see public speaking as her calling. Gads, it is painful to listen to and watch her speak. She needs to *read* her speeches from teleprompter - and figure out how to get rid of that shrill, grating tone that has crept into her voice in the past 7-1/2 years. It's horrid.)

Reb!

So, cleansing the Time magazine attack of their story lines, what do we know:

1) her statement was that she was resigning because the lawsuit blizzard that was being employed by the entrenched "good ole boys network" in Alaska and the marxist attack dogs from the Democratic left made her continuing to serve the people of Alaska a seriously problematic matter;

2) she is not a bitter clinger to her powerful position as Governor of one of the most prosperous states in the Union which should be an admirable quality that should be admired here at OL; and

3) she had professional, financial and family opportunities which she chose in a rational self interested decision.

However, it is much more shallow to focus on her grating voice and not on the fact that she is a direct and honest person.

A...

[Roger Bissell]

Cheap shot...

"air-quitter"

I guess it is fashionable to degrade a woman in Canada if she has a handicapped child.

I don't get it.

What does calling Palin's plane "Air Quitter" have to do with her having a handicapped child?

Nothing. Hitching a ride on Air Quitter as it hopped from Fairbanks to Ames refers to her resignation as Alaska governor, her bolting out of the state house. That was a disappointment for me. There was no drama in the resignation. She just bailed and walked away from her responsibilities. Nobody had asked her to step down.

.....

I admire her forthright defense of her children, especially her wee one, who is precious She should be respected as a mother. It isn't a weird or nasty thing to have a Down Syndrome Child at all, nor to love and care for a child with a more serious disability. Down Syndrome children can excel, love, read, work, play. I was back in the day disgusted with the bullshit Palin had to go through just to be a woman, a pregnant woman, a women with a

There is no truth to the highlighted statement.

William would be demanding and squealing for some "objective" sourcing for that statement which appears to be pure speculation.

A...

Time magazine did a feature on the "5 best explanations" of why Palin quit her governor's gig. Perhaps through lack of imagination - or fear of a lawsuit? - none of the speculations involved the idea that she someone had actually asked her to quit. http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1908800-2,00.html. Most of the reasons below appear to involve her untenable political position in Alaska. I think that together, along with the Palins' legal/financial troubles, the first four reasons pushed her hard toward quitting the governorship for the activist/inspirational role (and the $$$, of course).

1. She was repeating a previous "selfless" act of resignation, in order to curry public favor, rather than stay in office as "lame duck."

2. As she became more overtly conservative, she lost bipartisan support and further had national Dem's working to undermine her.

3. She was a gridlock and antagonistic governor and became frustrated.

4. She was busy so much with family and gone so much campaigning and speaking, she became in effect a lame duck and unable to govern effectively which was also frustrating. (See 3.)

5. The Palins had a lot of legal expenses, and speaking engagements made them a lot more money than their combined salaries and opened a pathway for her to become an inspirational public figure (cheerleader for conservative candidates and causes).

That may not be the most admirable combination of motives for someone to quit a job that wasn't working any more, but it's what I would have done. Sometime's it's right to be a "quitter," as long as you move on to what you really should be doing. (Though I really wish she didn't see public speaking as her calling. Gads, it is painful to listen to and watch her speak. She needs to *read* her speeches from teleprompter - and figure out how to get rid of that shrill, grating tone that has crept into her voice in the past 7-1/2 years. It's horrid.)

Reb!

So, cleansing the Time magazine attack of their story lines, what do we know:

1) her statement was that she was resigning because the lawsuit blizzard that was being employed by the entrenched "good ole boys network" in Alaska and the marxist attack dogs from the Democratic left made her continuing to serve the people of Alaska a seriously problematic matter;

2) she is not a bitter clinger to her powerful position as Governor of one of the most prosperous states in the Union which should be an admirable quality that should be admired here at OL; and

3) she had professional, financial and family opportunities which she chose in a rational self interested decision.

However, it is much more shallow to focus on her grating voice and not on the fact that she is a direct and honest person.

A...

I didn't take the Time article as an "attack" piece. There was no element of smear or impugning of motives or whispering of scandal that I could see. In fact, quite the opposite: the two lead paragraphs lay out the basic tone of the article, which was maintained throughout:

When Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced her intention to resign on July 3, many assumed there must be a looming scandal. Why else make the surprise announcement late in the afternoon before the July 4 holiday — the equivalent of a news black hole — in tones that varied from angry to anxious? Palin even hauled her husband back from a commercial fishing trip to be by her side.

In the days since, however, it has become clear that no other shoe is likely to drop. No federal investigation or teen pregnancy or hikes along the Appalachian Trail. Alaskan politicos who have worked with Palin for years say her reasons for leaving are multilayered, and largely personal. Her unhappiness in the job came as no surprise in Alaska. In fact, given her history — and how miserable the past eight months have been for her — perhaps the surprise is that more people didn't see it coming.

Directness and honesty are not unlimited and out-of-context virtues. Either the content or the tone of one's directness and honesty can seriously compromise the good one hopes to accomplish. I think it's realism and objectivity to acknowledge that fact, not "shallowness."

That is why I expressed my opinion that Palin should avoid extemporaneous speaking and read from written text as much as possible. She is fabulously good at that - as was GWB, as is BHO, both of whom are often embarrassingly painful to listen to when speaking off the cuff. To fix this shortcoming requires self-awareness and self-honesty, then training and practice to get better at it. But Palin shows no signs of having tried to improve. She is just as bad at extempo stuff now as she was talking to Couric and Walker in interviews years ago.

I had great hopes for her when I first heard her speak in 2008. But I also had great hopes that she would be a principled proponent for liberty, however inconsistent she might be from issue to issue. But now, except for throwing a bone at libertarians (viz., Rand Paul supporters), she seems more interested in beating the drums for war (kicking ISIS's ass - while somehow staying out of war and letting the Middle Easterners work it out??) and Trump's strength and ability to "make deals."

Does Palin not realize that "deal-making" is part and parcel of what Establishment, pragmatic politicians do, and is a major reason for the gradually deepening statist mess we have sunk into since the 60s - all the way from the great "deal-maker" himself, Lyndon Johnson, who twisted America's arm into deepening the Vietnam War and initiating a multi-trilliion-dollar moneypit known as the War on Poverty - to the great "pragmatic, problem-solver," Barack Obama.

Personally, I would prefer another 8 years of gridlock, than this unprincipled, stop-Hillary/Bernie-at-any-cost hoohah. God save us from the deal-makers and pragmatic, problem-solvers - and their cheerleaders. They are killing America.

Reb!

[BaalChatzaf]

Personally, I would prefer another 8 years of gridlock, than this unprincipled, stop-Hillary/Bernie-at-any-cost hoohah. God save us from the deal-makers and pragmatic, problem-solvers - and their cheerleaders. They are killing America.

Reb!

All the worse for the Republicans. The Front Runner Donald Trump seems to regard "making the deal" as the primary meme in his intellectual armory. That is such thin gruel!

Ba'al Catzaf

[Jonathan]

Personally, I would prefer another 8 years of gridlock, than this unprincipled, stop-Hillary/Bernie-at-any-cost hoohah. God save us from the deal-makers and pragmatic, problem-solvers - and their cheerleaders. They are killing America.

Reb!

We've had gridlock?!!!

And 8 years of it?!!! Heh.

I think that a hell of a lot of people -- conservatives, libertarians, and even some Objectivists included -- are supporting Trump because the "principled" candidates whom they've elected in the past didn't deliver the repeals and resistance that they promised, let alone "gridlock." They abandoned their "principles," and some of them have even taken to scolding the voters for being "angry" and clinging to their principles. They tell the public that the only way that a Republican candidate can win the presidency is if he's really nice and uncontroversial and is willing to reach across the aisle and compromise/cave in.

So the people are rejecting that mindset and supporting anyone who unapologetically speaks his mind, and who then doesn't immediately fold and retract and apologize as soon as he gets just a tiny little bit of heat from the media.

It's an issue of trust. Who can be trusted to not be wimpy? Who can be trusted to handle the heat and not be taken down by a little bit of media pressure? Which candidates are showing that they are actually principled enough to be in charge of their message and their image, and that they will lead rather than follow advisors, media pundits, party elites, etc.?

J

[Jonathan]

Personally, I would prefer another 8 years of gridlock, than this unprincipled, stop-Hillary/Bernie-at-any-cost hoohah. God save us from the deal-makers and pragmatic, problem-solvers - and their cheerleaders. They are killing America.

Reb!

All the worse for the Republicans. The Front Runner Donald Trump seems to regard "making the deal" as the primary meme in his intellectual armory. That is such thin gurel!

Ba'al Catzaf

My impression of Trump is that his thing is not just to "make" the deal, but to win it.

In contrast, the Republican party's goal for the last couple of decades appears to have been to not just "make" the deal, but to lose it. If elected -- and that's a big if -- they want to give up the fight, give away the store, kick the can down the road and promise once again that they'll fight then, in the future. Then, when that next fight comes, they give it up again.

The public is simply looking for someone who displays some backbone. They're no longer buying into candidates talking the talk, but requiring them to prove that they can walk the walk.

J

P.S. Did you notice when and why Carly fizzled? It was right after she took the stupid advice of being softer, gentler, happier and smilier. She started to look fake, and willing to be someone other than herself. She signaled that she was willing -- perhaps even eager -- to sit, beg and heel on command.

[Roger Bissell]

Personally, I would prefer another 8 years of gridlock, than this unprincipled, stop-Hillary/Bernie-at-any-cost hoohah. God save us from the deal-makers and pragmatic, problem-solvers - and their cheerleaders. They are killing America.

Reb!

All the worse for the Republicans. The Front Runner Donald Trump seems to regard "making the deal" as the primary meme in his intellectual armory. That is such thin gurel!

Ba'al Catzaf

Yeah, that and "make America great again." Personally, I couldn't care less whether America is "great," unless it means the greatest land of liberty on earth, which somehow I don't think is near the top of The Donald's bucket list of great things (Could be wrong on that...)

I'd much rather see America remain, and become even more, *amazing.* In other words, a more Steve Jobs kind of focus. But that requires a commitment to liberty, not to deal-making and threatening and boasting and waving poll numbers. Does The Donald have a commitment to liberty? How would we know?

Reb!

[Roger Bissell]

Cheap shot...

"air-quitter"

I guess it is fashionable to degrade a woman in Canada if she has a handicapped child.

I don't get it.

What does calling Palin's plane "Air Quitter" have to do with her having a handicapped child?

Nothing. Hitching a ride on Air Quitter as it hopped from Fairbanks to Ames refers to her resignation as Alaska governor, her bolting out of the state house. That was a disappointment for me. There was no drama in the resignation. She just bailed and walked away from her responsibilities. Nobody had asked her to step down.

.....

I admire her forthright defense of her children, especially her wee one, who is precious She should be respected as a mother. It isn't a weird or nasty thing to have a Down Syndrome Child at all, nor to love and care for a child with a more serious disability. Down Syndrome children can excel, love, read, work, play. I was back in the day disgusted with the bullshit Palin had to go through just to be a woman, a pregnant woman, a women with a

There is no truth to the highlighted statement.

William would be demanding and squealing for some "objective" sourcing for that statement which appears to be pure speculation.

A...

Time magazine did a feature on the "5 best explanations" of why Palin quit her governor's gig. Perhaps through lack of imagination - or fear of a lawsuit? - none of the speculations involved the idea that she someone had actually asked her to quit. http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1908800-2,00.html. Most of the reasons below appear to involve her untenable political position in Alaska. I think that together, along with the Palins' legal/financial troubles, the first four reasons pushed her hard toward quitting the governorship for the activist/inspirational role (and the $$$, of course).

1. She was repeating a previous "selfless" act of resignation, in order to curry public favor, rather than stay in office as "lame duck."

2. As she became more overtly conservative, she lost bipartisan support and further had national Dem's working to undermine her.

3. She was a gridlock and antagonistic governor and became frustrated.

4. She was busy so much with family and gone so much campaigning and speaking, she became in effect a lame duck and unable to govern effectively which was also frustrating. (See 3.)

5. The Palins had a lot of legal expenses, and speaking engagements made them a lot more money than their combined salaries and opened a pathway for her to become an inspirational public figure (cheerleader for conservative candidates and causes).

That may not be the most admirable combination of motives for someone to quit a job that wasn't working any more, but it's what I would have done. Sometime's it's right to be a "quitter," as long as you move on to what you really should be doing. (Though I really wish she didn't see public speaking as her calling. Gads, it is painful to listen to and watch her speak. She needs to *read* her speeches from teleprompter - and figure out how to get rid of that shrill, grating tone that has crept into her voice in the past 7-1/2 years. It's horrid.)

Reb!

So, cleansing the Time magazine attack of their story lines, what do we know:

1) her statement was that she was resigning because the lawsuit blizzard that was being employed by the entrenched "good ole boys network" in Alaska and the marxist attack dogs from the Democratic left made her continuing to serve the people of Alaska a seriously problematic matter;

2) she is not a bitter clinger to her powerful position as Governor of one of the most prosperous states in the Union which should be an admirable quality that should be admired here at OL; and

3) she had professional, financial and family opportunities which she chose in a rational self interested decision.

However, it is much more shallow to focus on her grating voice and not on the fact that she is a direct and honest person.

A...

Oh, and how about the sheer rambling, bizarre, incoherent delivery? It was tailor-made for supporting Trump's campaign, but that is not a virtue.

Reb!

[Roger Bissell]

For me, it was when it became noticeable that she was bobbling her head from side to side when she talked. I guess that kind of movement relates somewhat to critters that sit, beg, and heel and affect a happy, smiley demeanor. It worked pretty well for Jay Leno, but it just looks weird and unnatural on Carly.

Reb!

[Roger Bissell]

Cheap shot...

"air-quitter"

I guess it is fashionable to degrade a woman in Canada if she has a handicapped child.

I don't get it.

What does calling Palin's plane "Air Quitter" have to do with her having a handicapped child?

Hitching a ride on Air Quitter as it hopped from Fairbanks to Ames refers to her resignation as Alaska governor, her bolting out of the state house. That was a disappointment for me. There was no drama in the resignation. She just bailed and walked away from her responsibilities. Nobody had asked her to step down.

There is no truth to the highlighted statement.

William would be demanding and squealing for some "objective" sourcing for that statement which appears to be pure speculation.

A...

There isn't a speck of *falsity* in the highlighted statement. Except a missing concession that perhaps she was leaving in order to honor a higher responsibility than serving out her term as governor. The rest of it is spot-on.

You seem rather hostile to William. What did he do to you? Has he "demanded" and "squealed" too much for your taste? (I know, William can take care of himself. I just wonder why you seem to be attacking both substance and motive, no matter what he says.)

Cheers,

Reb!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

My impression of Trump is that his thing is not just to "make" the deal, but to win it.

Jonathan,

That is exactly right. And Trump is winning the deal from his competitors

I'm working on a business project right now and I see up close just how important it is to value the stage you are in.

What I mean is this. You have a mission and you have stages. Your mission gives the result you want and a stage gives you one of the major conditions for getting that result.

Trump has an overall mission: Make America Great Again. That's a bit vague, but in Trump's mind, it means making the country prosperous, having a strong defense, cutting out the moron stuff of giving our wealth away, etc. I think Trump would like to see the America of Norman Vincent Peale, one of his spiritual mentors, with a strong capitalist flavor permeating the culture. That kind of great.

In order for that to happen, just like with any business, you have to put the project on a timeline with specific stages and specific major goals for each stage. And you have to keep an eye on what the competitors are doing as you execute the stages. Especially since competitors are often different for each stage.

Where people like Trump differ from people like Obama (or even establishment Republicans and bureaucrats in general) in the practical side of executing the stages of a plan is in how failures are handled. In the Trumpian manner, you don't move from Stage 1 until it is completed correctly. And if it is not completely correctly, you fire the people in charge and get better talent or you shut the project down. And if you have to fire people, you make adjustments to the timeline while cussing your ass off. But you don't relax the need for a correct outcome.

In the Obama manner, you grade the result then move on. If the result was piss-poor, you give yourself a D-, mumble about accountability, we have to do better, maybe change the metrics and language, yada yada yada. (Look how that healthcare software worked out.)

Competitor-wise, Trump is for old-fashioned bare-knuckles competition. A clean open fight. Obama prefers deception and backstabbing.

So if Trump's vision is to Make America Great Again, his first stage is to get elected in the primaries. And not just elected, but elected by a constituency that will later ensure a Congress of like-minded people for him to work with. Some fudging and monkeyshines can happen re the mission during this stage because the realities of the stage are often at variance with the mission. (Think competitors.) This is true for all business plans. But you can't stray too far from the mission without polluting it. Flexibility is one thing. Pollution is another.

So will Trump pollute his mission?

Well, look at how many successful business plans Trump has completed on time and under budget. The results are all over the world in iconic projects. Do they look compromised? Hell no. Excellence is one of the adjectives most used for them. And look at the size and competence of the competitors he has beaten while executing his projects. This guy knows what he's doing.

This view is called a "growth mindset." It is distinguished from a "fixed mindset" in that growth entails change as you go along. A master at growth course corrects as he goes along. In fact, he builds in mechanisms to handle the course corrections.

The fixed mindset person wants an on-off switch--generally words being the switch. He wants people to be one way one day, then totally different the next because the right words are used. That doesn't work when power over other people is involved like with politics. People are not robots. Voters aren't robots and neither are politicians. They all live within growth cycles.

Winning a deal along a timeline is a growth mindset thing rather than just making a deal like an on-off switch.

In fact, now that I think about it, growth mindset vs. fixed mindset probably explains why Trump's supporters cut across all demographics. They see the growth cycle whereas others try to play gotcha all the time.

(If people want to learn more about the mindsets, here is a great place to start.)

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

A note on Sarah Palin.

She is one of the driving forces behind the liberty caucus in Congress. She helped get many of those folks elected.

That's what she devoted her life to in politics after she stepped down as governor. I say she has been extraordinarily successful. Hell, she even helped elect Rand Paul.

Now she is helping Trump get elected president.

Does anyone see anything, anything at all in a pot at the end of that rainbow?

Michael

[Selene]

...refers to her resignation as Alaska governor, her bolting out of the state house. That was a disappointment for me. There was no drama in the resignation. She just bailed and walked away from her responsibilities. Nobody had asked her to step down.

There is no truth to the highlighted statement.

William would be demanding and squealing for some "objective" sourcing for that statement which appears to be pure speculation.

A...

There isn't a speck of *falsity* in the highlighted statement. Except a missing concession that perhaps she was leaving in order to honor a higher responsibility than serving out her term as governor. The rest of it is spot-on.

You seem rather hostile to William. What did he do to you? Has he "demanded" and "squealed" too much for your taste? (I know, William can take care of himself. I just wonder why you seem to be attacking both substance and motive, no matter what he says.)

Cheers,

Reb!

"bolted"

"bailed"

"...walked away from her responsibilities."

No Reb, nothing at all negative or untrue in those loaded phrases.

I have a close friend and client that was a businessman in Alaska and he was in her campaign and part of her administration as an unpaid adviser. He specifically praised her work in breaking up a seriously corrupt Republican network that was harming the citizens of Alaska.

She had an excellent Lieutenant Governor as well as other individuals who were quite prepared to run the state as well as she did.

A...

A...

[william.scherk]

Oh, and how about the sheer rambling, bizarre, incoherent delivery?

On the whole, the endorsement is only good news for Trump's campaign, only positive for his goals. Palin is a known quantity. Nothing she says surprises anyone, and that she is sometimes inarticulate does not matter to the campaign or the target voters. If, as I suspect, she will not merely endorse him, but actively campaign for him, then the positives can only grow. Is there "a pot at the end of that rainbow?" There is indeed a pot, and a rainbow, and Hoopla up the wazoo. Michael''s assessment is shared across the board -- the Hoopla is two-fold. On Hater side, the Democrats salivate. On Lover side, this is rentrenchment and expansion. It is only good news for the GOP Trump supporters. Every last hack I have read on the wires today says the exact same thing, six ways: Boon. Boon to Trump. Boon to GOP. Boon to Democrats. Exciting campaign got more exiting with entry of a hard-ass campaigner (if she campaigns on the hustings).

Biff bam boom.

Whether or not this means Mr Trump will storm to victory in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada .. is open. We shall see. I have said I will move from the Orange Zone somewhere around March 15th. I love the idea of just having the selection tomorrow, but. There is more TrumpGasm to come. Let us not doubt that. An Entertainer and Egoist at the peak of his power and glory. The only man to stop Trump is Trump himself. Bide my words, doubters.

Anyhow, Sarah Palin's endorsement speech. Her plain text remarks are easy to read and comprehend. We are used to this. One can evaluate the words and get all New Jersey about rhetoric, but what has effect is the message, the emotion. And you can test that kind of thing.

Imagine if you translated her English to Spanish to French to Russian and back again into English? Well, you would do something called the Translation Test, and you would get this:

Thank you. It's so great to be here in Iowa. We are here just melt. Todd and I and a couple of our friends here in Alaska, give our support to the next president of our great United States of America, Donald J.. Trump.

"Mr. Trump, you're right there to do in the press room. Heads turn heads turn the media. It will be fun.

"Are you ready to make America great again all? A role in this area. We are all responsible. Looking around you all the working families of Iowa. You, a family of farmers and teachers, and the Teamsters and the police, and cooks. You roll Rockin '. And holy rollers! All those who work so hard. You full-time moms. You hands that rock the cradle. You are the whole world, and now is one of our reasons.

"When asked why I would jump in the primary - type move a little, perhaps - and choose a few friends who work, and I spent a few others of his career before he decides to run for president, it was said, on the left and right "to be thus beating the press. You are only going to get a beating, chew and spit. "You know, I think," So what? "You know, you did not try to do every day since that night in 2008, when I was in the phase of the nomination for Vice President, and I have to say," Yes, go, send me, you have more. I will serve. "And as you all, I'm still standing. So those of us who have been through the ringer kind Mr. Trump, makes me respect you more. Reputation're here, and you put your effort you put in, they put the relationship on the line to do the right thing for this country. Because you are ready to make America great again.

-- so, anyone fretting about Sarah's effect is pissing in the wind. It doesn't matter if she gibbers. She has a lock on a certain voter cohort. And now, those voters will be extra-energized for Trump.

Here is the same text above, read by Sexy Lucy, the Political Porn robot. Even I who am immune to Palin's charm -- I can feel the resounding emotional baseline that reverberates even through the translation test:

Easy-listening Karaoke version. You can make your own song!

Edited January 20, 2016 by william.scherk

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's an establishment Republican saying what he really thinks of Trump supporters. It's something to pop out like that because the elites are good at hiding it. (From RCP Video: Republican Strategist Rick Wilson: Trump Supporters Are "Childless Single Men Who Masturbate To Anime".)
 

 

Who think Donald Trump is the greatest thing, oh, it`s something. But the fact of the matter is, most of them are childless single men who masturbate to anime. They're not real and political players. These are not people who matter in the overall course of humanity.

 
Well, then.

 

I'm glad we solved that mystery.

 

 

Make no mistake about it. This is what many of the elites really think about normal working Americans. Not the part about masturbating to anime. It's that other part.

 

The part where he says: "These are not people who matter in the overall course of humanity."

 

I guess we're going to have an election and see just how little they matter in the overall course of humanity.

 

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

Personally, I would prefer another 8 years of gridlock, than this unprincipled, stop-Hillary/Bernie-at-any-cost hoohah. God save us from the deal-makers and pragmatic, problem-solvers - and their cheerleaders. They are killing America.

Reb!

All the worse for the Republicans. The Front Runner Donald Trump seems to regard "making the deal" as the primary meme in his intellectual armory. That is such thin gurel!

Ba'al Catzaf

My impression of Trump is that his thing is not just to "make" the deal, but to win it.

In contrast, the Republican party's goal for the last couple of decades appears to have been to not just "make" the deal, but to lose it. If elected -- and that's a big if -- they want to give up the fight, give away the store, kick the can down the road and promise once again that they'll fight then, in the future. Then, when that next fight comes, they give it up again.

The public is simply looking for someone who displays some backbone. They're no longer buying into candidates talking the talk, but requiring them to prove that they can walk the walk.

J

P.S. Did you notice when and why Carly fizzled? It was right after she took the stupid advice of being softer, gentler, happier and smilier. She started to look fake, and willing to be someone other than herself. She signaled that she was willing -- perhaps even eager -- to sit, beg and heel on command.

The government of the U.S. is supposed to be run under the Law. Making deals is something that private folk can do. Government people take an oath to support the Constitution, not to make (or win) deals.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Roger Bissell]

...refers to her resignation as Alaska governor, her bolting out of the state house. That was a disappointment for me. There was no drama in the resignation. She just bailed and walked away from her responsibilities. Nobody had asked her to step down.

There is no truth to the highlighted statement.

William would be demanding and squealing for some "objective" sourcing for that statement which appears to be pure speculation.

A...

There isn't a speck of *falsity* in the highlighted statement. Except a missing concession that perhaps she was leaving in order to honor a higher responsibility than serving out her term as governor. The rest of it is spot-on.

You seem rather hostile to William. What did he do to you? Has he "demanded" and "squealed" too much for your taste? (I know, William can take care of himself. I just wonder why you seem to be attacking both substance and motive, no matter what he says.)

Cheers,

Reb!

"bolted"

"bailed"

"...walked away from her responsibilities."

No Reb, nothing at all negative or untrue in those loaded phrases.

Whoa, there, young feller. I didn't say there wasn't anything *negative* in those phrases. But neither are they loaded.

Bolted - suddenly moved. She did indeed. It was very precipitous, unexpected, when she left office. Truth.

Bailed - jumped ship. She did indeed. Again, without warning. Truth

Walked away from her responsibilities - she ran for office and agreed to serve, then reneged. Truth.

Did she have an emergency, a pressing need to leave office, or was it just uncomfortable for her to remain? If there was a legitimate need, other than feeling frustrated and not having the gumption to stick it out, then fine, she was answering to a higher responsibility. The financial disaster looming over them with legal complaints and suits might count as such. But there is no denying that she walked away- hell, bolted - from her responsibilities. She jumped ship. You can't make that much prettier, unless you completely white-wash it. "She suddenly left office."

I think we know a lot more than that. 1. Sarah Palin is an ambitious woman, and remaining in that office was a detriment to her ambitions. 2. Sarah Palin has a much lower tolerance for bankruptcy than, oh, say, Donald Trump, and leaving that office gave her an opportunity to avoid bankruptcy. I don't see anything wrong with either of those reasons/facts - nor with identifying them in non-powerpuff language.

Reb!

[Roger Bissell]

Personally, I would prefer another 8 years of gridlock, than this unprincipled, stop-Hillary/Bernie-at-any-cost hoohah. God save us from the deal-makers and pragmatic, problem-solvers - and their cheerleaders. They are killing America.

Reb!

All the worse for the Republicans. The Front Runner Donald Trump seems to regard "making the deal" as the primary meme in his intellectual armory. That is such thin gurel!

Ba'al Catzaf

My impression of Trump is that his thing is not just to "make" the deal, but to win it.

In contrast, the Republican party's goal for the last couple of decades appears to have been to not just "make" the deal, but to lose it. If elected -- and that's a big if -- they want to give up the fight, give away the store, kick the can down the road and promise once again that they'll fight then, in the future. Then, when that next fight comes, they give it up again.

The public is simply looking for someone who displays some backbone. They're no longer buying into candidates talking the talk, but requiring them to prove that they can walk the walk.

J

P.S. Did you notice when and why Carly fizzled? It was right after she took the stupid advice of being softer, gentler, happier and smilier. She started to look fake, and willing to be someone other than herself. She signaled that she was willing -- perhaps even eager -- to sit, beg and heel on command.

The government of the U.S. is supposed to be run under the Law. Making deals is something that private folk can do. Government people take an oath to support the Constitution, not to make (or win) deals.

Ba'al Chatzaf

We already have someone in the White House who has made a *lot* of deals. They are just deals that badly suck. Trump is suggesting that he will make deals that will help America, rather than selling it down the river.

There is nothing inherently wrong or unconstitutional in making deals, i.e., negotiating. The problem, I think, is in assuming that political negotiating is sufficiently like business negotiating that someone with obvious skill at the latter will do the former in a way that adequately defends our liberties against enemies foreign and abroad (aka support the Constitution), rather than making things worse in yet other, creative ways than our current POTUS has done.

But yes, I agree with your misgivings. I am particularly about someone who utters the words "great" and "deal" more than they do "liberty" and "Constitution." Since we very well may be referring to him as President Trump by this time next year, we should probably hope that this is just rhetorical emphasis to get across his style, rather than an indication of the lack of important substance in his positions.

Reb!

[Jonathan]

The government of the U.S. is supposed to be run under the Law. Making deals is something that private folk can do. Government people take an oath to support the Constitution, not to make (or win) deals.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Are you unaware of the fact that representatives of the US government make deals with other countries all of the time, and that they do so under the law?

J

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I recall a deal with Iran like recently.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This should go in Trump Humor, but for some reason, I feel here is more appropriate.

When Trump was talking at Liberty University, a Christian institution, the other day, he cited a verse from the Bible. He called the reference "Two Corinthians" instead of "Second Corinthians" or "Second Epistle to the Corinthians" or otherwise used the word "second." All of a sudden, as Rush Limbaugh pointed out, all the drive-by anti-Christian pundits became Biblical scholars and started harping on about Trump's alleged mistake.

For the record, I remember Sunday School back in Virginia (Southern Baptist) and we certainly did say "Two Corinthians."

Anyway, Rush had some fun with this (see: Drive-By Biblical Scholars Scold Trump) and ended thus:

Two Corinthians walk into a bar and one of them said, "Did you hear what Donald Trump said?"

And a letter to Rush:

I just got an e-mail. "Dear Mr. Limbaugh: I am much more worried about 20 million illegal aliens and a hundred thousand Syrian refugees than I am Two Corinthians. Could we please stay focused here? Trump hasn't lost focus, and I don't want you to."

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

The government of the U.S. is supposed to be run under the Law. Making deals is something that private folk can do. Government people take an oath to support the Constitution, not to make (or win) deals.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Are you unaware of the fact that representatives of the US government make deals with other countries all of the time, and that they do so under the law?

J

Called treaties which are subject to the Consent of the Senate. A Treaty is legal under the constitution so it cannot legally suspend the Constitution (at least in theory).

[Backlighting]

Roger Bissell said: "That is why I expressed my opinion that Palin should avoid extemporaneous speaking and read from written text as much as possible. She is fabulously good at that - as was GWB, as is BHO, both of whom are often embarrassingly painful to listen to when speaking off the cuff"

I couldn't agree more.

I find her voice, when speaking extemporaneously, quite annoying.

-J

[Jules Troy]

You think she is bad? Try listening to Preston Manning when he was in politics up here in Canada..